Tai Kwun | Tai Kwun Circus Plays 2025: Asian Circus Focus

Description

As one of Hong Kong’s first contemporary circus festivals, ​​Tai Kwun Circus Plays introduced for the first time last year the Asian Circus Focus, where circus artists and enthusiasts from across Asia came together to build a performance platform. This year, industry professionals from the region will gather again to exchange skills, deepen connections, and forge opportunities for international collaborations. Hong Kong-born, England-based artist Louiseanne Wong Pui Chi’s ingenious mix of dance, circus, parkour and theatre; Beijingese mime performer Wang Zi’s blind box show; and Taiwanese juggler Huang Yi’s diabolo showcase offer together some glimpses into the vibrant landscape of Asian circus.

Professional Circus Focus Program

Tai Kwun plays an active role in fostering talent for the circus industry. A new attempt under “Asian Circus Focus,” the Professional Circus Focus Program is a networking and exchange platform for circus artists across Asia. Local and Asian circus artists will be invited to a two-day workshop, where they will explore, share and reimagine the vocabulary and practice of contemporary circus to create more opportunities for dialogue and experiments. This program is by invitation only. Anyone who wishes to know more about it is welcome to contact us by email performingarts@taikwunarts.hk

About the works

I AM. AM I by Louiseanne Wong

Who am I? Who calls the shots?

Dance, circus, parkour and theatre rolled into one, Louiseanne Wong’s latest work peels away the layers of value in our identities in a performance balanced between explosion and intimacy. Her experience as a Hong Konger widely exposed to foreign cultures eventually leads to I AM. AM I, a discourse on social conditioning, displacement, and counter-stereotypes.

At the centre of the stage is a refrigerator, which is both a playground and a battlefield. The artist jumps onto it, goes inside and breaks it apart. The household appliance is a symbol of survival, memory and time freeze, alongside an analogy to existence and entrapment.

Powered by exuberance in dance, preciseness in parkour, and spectacles in circus, I AM. AM I boasts a raw energy as it questions pressing issues such as the dispersion of East Asians, entrenched racial inequality, and the fight for one’s lost identity. 

Performance: Louiseanne Wong

Mime Blind Box Show by Wang Zi
This mysterious offering contains snippets of 20-plus comical mimes composed single-handedly by Wang Zi, a mime performer from Beijing and the founder of Nadading Troupe. Each show is one of a kind as the programme is created arbitrarily like opening blind boxes.

Performer: Wang Zi

One Meteorite in the Room by Ivano Huang

Inside my room, objects are being picked up and put down continuously and consciously. “Am I in touch with my feelings?” Lost in thoughts, I look back searching for myself – my own self in different stages of life, and all the stagnant memories hidden in this living space. Suddenly, I am possessed by these memories and dragged out of my room. Out on the street, I stare at…this world that moulds me into who I am today. “Under what circumstances would a teenager run away to live in a diabolo?” aloud I cry.

Creation and Performance: Ivano Huang

Programme Timetable

24-28 Dec 2025 (Wed-Sun)

12pm - 12:30pm Wang Zi’s Mime Blind Box Show (Wang Zi, Beijing)
1:30pm - 2:00pm One Meteorite in the Room (Ivano Huang, Taipei)
3pm - 3:30pm I AM. AM I (Louiseanne Wong Pui Chi, Hong Kong)